Childlike Features
by Ying-Long
Summary: When Cologne and Shampoo use a magic to get Ranma to be devoted to Shampoo, they missed the difference between 'devoted to' and 'dependant on'
1. Chapter 1

_**Childlike Features**_

_Italics are thoughts_

**I do not own Ranma ½. I write this for entertainment only. But if you copy what I wrote, shame on you!**

Chapter the First: Grim Realization

Ranma raced along the street towards the Dojo, Shampoo in hot pursuit, "dammit, Shampoo, leave me alone!"

"Airen! Shampoo make so happy!"

_Ya would if ya just left me alone!_ Ranma thought as he raced down one street and up another. Losing the Amazon was always a laborious task, but one well worth it if he managed to do so in time to catch up with Akane. He knew from past experience that once she was in her room, she'd get angry.

_But she's sticking to me like glue and…wait…she's not following me. She's **driving** me!_ Ranma ground to a halt so fast that she almost ran into him, but not so fast that he avoided the old ghoul throwing a strange-smelling powder in his face.

"Wha…" he began, swaying groggily, "what was that?"

Cologne chortled at him but it was Shampoo who answered, "magic make Airen dependant on wife. Then you forget about other girl and come back to China with Shampoo!"

Panicked, Ranma took off, both Amazons rushing to follow. He was blind to reason now, his only instinct was to get back to Akane before the potion took effect. Ranma didn't know _why_ he felt this way, he just knew that if he got to her, everything else would sort of work itself out. After all, that was the way it always was. So long as he could reassure himself that she was fine, he could handle anything.

"Airen! Wait for Shampoo!"

The closer he got to the Tendo Dojo, the more Ranma became aware of how he was slowing down. But he still spotted Akane as she walked along towards the gate. He was too frightened to notice the size difference till he practically collided with her and suddenly realized that he had to look up, _way_ up, to see her.

"Akane!" he gasped anyway as he staggered to a halt in front of her, " 'Kane!"

Startled, she looked down, her eyes growing wide, "R-Ranma?" she stammered, gawking down at him.

He grimaced, subconsciously grabbing her skirts and hiding his face in the soft fabric, "I'm sorry, 'Kane," he whimpered, fighting a rapidly crumbling composure, "I didn't want…please don't hit me."

"Aiya! Why Airen go to Pervert Girl!" Shampoo demanded from down the street, "we have too-too romantic date!" Just because Ranma was slowing down, didn't mean that he wasn't still incredibly fast.

Ranma cringed at her voice, shaking as he waited for Akane to hit him, to call him a jerk or a pervert as he felt he rightly deserved. His bout of self-loathing, however, was cut off when Akane scooped him up into her arms.

"What did you do to him this time?" Akane snapped, holding a startled Ranma protectively close, "can't you leave him alone?"

"Is none of Violent girl's business!" Shampoo protested, lunging. Akane moved aside, with a grace that both stunned and mesmerized Ranma, without jostling him in the slightest. He just held onto her shoulders and buried his unbearably hot eyes in her shirt, still fighting tears.

"Of _course_ it's my business," Akane snarled, "he came to me, so he _made_ it my business."

"Enough, Shampoo," Cologne chided, "obviously, the potion wasn't what we wanted. We should be home, researching an antidote. Let the girl deal with him for now."

Shampoo looked murderous, but still consented, "yes, Great Grandmother. Shampoo come."

The two watched them leave, then Akane sighed, shifting her grip and then she started walking again. But Ranma couldn't stand the silence and so, he chose to interrupt it.

" 'Kane?" he murmured unhappily, "I…if I'm disgustin' ya, ya can just leave me here an' I'll find something…" his voice cracked at that, so he just waited in silence.

"Baka," she murmured, the affection in her tone taking away the sting of the words, "you aren't disgusting. Don't worry about it."

"N-No?" he stammered.

"It'll be fine. Daddy loves children. Do you want to keep them from finding out?"

"Your sister wouldn't let that work," Ranma grumbled, "else…yeah."

"I'll tell them at dinner."

"Akane?"

"Yes, Ranma?"

"I…thanks. But I don't really feel like eatin' anything."

"Okay. Bath and bed?"

"Please?"

"Sure. I'll get the towels."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Childlike Features**_

_Italics are thoughts_

**I do not own Ranma ½. I write this for entertainment only. But if you copy what I wrote, shame on you!**

Chapter the Second: Bathtubs and Chinese Shirts

Ranma sighed as he lowered himself into the bath, only then realizing that there was a problem. He had to tread water, because the side of the tub was too slippery. Frowning, he grabbed for it again, cursing to himself when his tiny fingers just slipped away.

_I gotta get out before I cook!_ But no matter how he struggled, he couldn't get out. He even tried surging out of the water, but even that didn't work. Ranma fought on, though, furious with himself when he felt tears spike at the edges of his vision, telling himself over and over that men don't cry. But it didn't work, he had had a rough day and was too upset to stop them. The only thing keeping him from giving in now was the knowledge that if he lost focus, he'd never get out of the tub.

_Akane…_Ranma thought, then frowned and snarled to himself, _if I asked her ta come in here, she'd think I was a pervert or somethin'. Stupid! I can't…Akane_, he thought again, starting to feel fear spike as yet another attempt to get out of the tub failed.

"A…kane," he whispered shakily, clawing at the slick side. _Please Akane…I'm…I'm scared,_ he admitted, in his thoughts but not out loud, his eyes squeezed shut. But they snapped open when soft hands grabbed him around the chest and he found himself being lifted out of the water.

Akane set him down in front of her, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, "are you okay, Ranma?" she asked, offering him a dry towel.

He gawked up at her, then numbly took the towel and murmured a reply. As she straightened, he watched her, once again fighting the urge to start crying. _Men don't cry!_ The voice was beginning to sound like his father.

Ranma froze at that realization, then began to get dressed. He had no idea where Akane had gotten these clothes, they looked nothing like the ones he'd worn during the episode with the magic mushrooms. And they felt oddly…familiar.

"Your mom had them," Akane explained from the changing room, as if sensing what he was thinking, "I thought it might be better if you had your own instead of…well…mine."

She sounded so sad that Ranma frowned, looking down at what he was wearing. It looked vaguely similar to what he liked to wear now, Chinese pants and a silk shirt. He always told himself that he liked his clothes because they were tough, but that was a lie. He liked them at first because, in a way, he was vain. He liked the way they looked on him. It was _his_ look. And it looked nothing like his stupid panda Oyaji. He liked that, especially after Jusenkyo. And after he arrived in Nerima, he liked them because…Akane liked them.

Ranma had once, on a lark, worn 'normal' clothes like the other teenage males. No one else seemed to mind, in fact several girls commented before they recognized him (as Akane's fiancée) but Akane's reaction had been…informative. He'd caught her frowning at him once, as if she disapproved of something. Her chi had told him that it wasn't him she disapproved of, so he'd taken a wild guess that it was the clothes. That look went away when he changed and came back down in his usual clothes.

_An' she always likes to run some of the fabric between her fingers when I'm carryin' her,_ Ranma realized with a start, before finishing pulling on the shirt, _I thought she'd lost her mind or was in shock or something the first time but…those times I had to lend a shirt to her, she relaxed once she was wearin' it. I could practically see her calm down._

"Ranma? Are you okay in there?"

He looked up, the mood broken and his pain returning in a rush. If she derived calm from his clothes…then they had something in common. The times she'd lent him clothes, for whatever reason, he'd felt relaxed. Calm. And the times she'd been in his arms, the feel of the cloth and the smell of her always relieved that fear he'd always had, deep down, that she might be just a dream.

Sudden need filled him and he practically lunged at the door, shoving it open and diving at a startled Akane. Grabbing her skirts, he stepped forward and buried his face in the fabric of her favorite skirt, the yellow one with blue moons on it. The tears came then, hot, wet tears that rapidly soaked the fabric. It hurt _so_ much that once he started, he just kept on crying, clinging to her as best he could while giving up on controlling the pain and the tears it caused.

It was several minutes later that he became aware of the fact that he was being held and he focused long enough to see that Akane was kneeling on the floor in front of him, holding him close with such a look of concern on her face. _She's only acting like this cause I look like a kid!_ He thought and abruptly pulled away, the pain warping and getting much worse.

"Ranma?" he shook his head, then started when she ground out a curse and picked him up, holding him as she snarled in his ear, "you _baka_! If you think I'm doing this out of pity or…or…whatever! You're wrong. You're upset and you came to _me_! And I… and I… I _like_ that! I _want_ you to come to me instead of someone else. So dammit, don't you dare pull away!"

Akane was crying now, her grip on him tightening a bit. Ranma was stunned by her words…and more so their meaning. She wasn't doing it for the reason he assumed. She was doing it because she cared…for him.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Childlike Features**_

_Italics are thoughts_

**I do not own Ranma ½. I write this for entertainment only. But if you copy what I wrote, shame on you!**

Chapter the Third: Rude Awakening

_So…warm._ Ranma burrowed deeper into the softness, inhaling deeply of the scent of lavender and fire and…something else. He was still mostly asleep, and had no idea where he was. But he felt warm…and safe. So he relaxed and allowed himself to wake slowly, something he hadn't done since he was six.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," he murmured, then shot up as he recognized the voice. Only Akane's reflexes kept him from falling off the side of the bed.

"What's wrong?" she gasped, hauling him up and checking him over, searching for injury.

"But…But I'm in yer _bed_!" Ranma stammered, desperately trying to figure out how he'd ended up in Akane's room and on her bed. It also didn't escape his notice that she was wearing her pajamas, the yellow ones that had always generated an odd feeling in his stomach when he saw her wearing them.

"Ranma!" catching him when he fell back a second time, Akane didn't bother with politeness this time. Flipping him neatly, she dropped him on the bed so that she was between him and the edge.

"Yeah?" he asked, his eyes darting about in search of an escape route.

"You fell asleep," she explained patiently, watching him all the same, "so I explained what had happened to the family. Nabiki is out trying to find a way to turn you back to normal. And our fathers are too worried about your mother to even think about us."

"But…how come I'm in _yer_ room?" Ranma sputtered, struggling to digest the information while watching for signs of an impending attack.

Akane made an impatient noise, "because Shampoo tried to cart you off while you were asleep."

"Oh," Ranma hesitated for a moment, then looked up as something occurred to him, "where's my futon?"

Her eyes narrowed for a minute before pain replaced suspicion and she looked away, "oh," Akane said, in a very small voice, "oh. Okay. Sorry. I just…I don't know…"

Ranma gave her a peculiar look, running through what he'd just said, "Akane?" he asked, getting her to stop but not look at him, standing uncertainly at the bedside.

"Yes, Ranma?"

Getting onto his hands and knees, he crawled to the edge and reached out to touch her. But he lost his balance and fell forward, catching her around the waist and hanging there in stunned silence.

"Oops."

Akane burst out laughing, even as she picked him up and held him at eye level, "baka," she murmured, "why'd you do that?"

Ranma blushed, "cause I was wonderin'…can I sleep with ya?"

Her eyes bulged at that and before she could explode, he realized how that sounded and began desperately waving his hands between then, insisting that he didn't mean it like it sounded. Finally, Akane got over her shock and very gently set him back on the bed.

"Then what did you mean?" she demanded hotly, giving him a look that told him that answering was mandatory.

"I meant…I ain't slept like that since I was six…an' Oyaji started in with wakin' me up fightin'. It was…nice," Ranma admitted, knowing that he was blushing madly by now, "it felt…_safe_. An'…an'…I ain't a coward! But…I…I woke up feelin' like maybe the world ain't out ta get me. Like…like I wasn't in it on my own," he sagged, released from the weight of keeping all this to himself, "like I wasn't…alone; an' I can't remember the last time I woke up that way."

Akane drew in a shuddering breath and he had an impression of tears before she had him in a firm hug, "you aren't alone. I'm here, aren't I?" she smiled at him through her tears when he looked up in amazement, "I know how you feel," she admitted.

"Huh? How!" Ranma demanded, pain warring with anger, "HOW! HAVE YA SPENT EVERY DAY SINCE YA WERE SIX FIGHTING FER ALMOST EVERYTHING! DO YER PARENTS EXPECT YA TO BE PERFECT? DID YA ALMOST LOSE THE _ONE_ PERSON YA CAN'T LIVE WITH-urk!" he finished, realizing he'd said way too much.

"No," she ground out, "have you spent almost your _entire life_ stuck between what you like to do and what other people think you should and shouldn't do? Were you expected to be one or the other instead of both? Did _you_ get turned into a prize for years, something people wanted, without caring how _you_ felt! No? Well, I did!" Akane snapped, "I love the Art. It's the only thing I have that _I_ was good at. I'm no business woman like Nabiki and I'm not good at house stuff like Kasumi. At least your parents only expect you to be _one_ thing."

Ranma blinked at her, "Akane…"

"_YOU_ don't have to be something you're not. _You_ don't have to sit by while others decide your future, for years. The boys at school, my sisters…our fathers. They've been directing my future like I'm a bicycle or something. I've had no say in how my life is going and how it will go, not since my mother died. Mom was the only person who believed that I should be allowed to become whatever I wanted to be."

"Oh," Ranma frowned, "that why ya can't cook ta save yer life?" the moment the words were past his lips, he braced himself for a pounding.

"No. I suck at cooking because I hate it. I hate cooking, I hate cleaning, I hate doing any of the things Kasumi likes to do."

"Then why do ya do it?" Ranma asked, wondering why he was still alive…or at least conscious.

Her look was his answer, just the briefest of glances but it told him everything. Why she tried, why she got so upset over something she truly despised, why she always got so angry. She wanted to be a martial artist, but everyone else wanted her to become a typical housewife.

"You know…why."

"Oh… 'Kane…" Ranma murmured, staring up at her in misery, "I expect _other_ girls ta do that kinda thing. Not you. I just wanted ya ta be there. I never really wanted that kinda thing in a…" he stopped, then continued at a near-whisper, "in a…bride?"

"What do you mean by that?" she asked warily.

"I wanna marry ya, if you'll have me," Ranma admitted, figuring that it was now or never, "I want…I want ya in my life, cause…" now, he winced, "cause it hurt like you wouldn't believe when ya weren't…an' you were so still…" he was shaking now, sobbing his words instead of speaking them, "an' it was MY FAULT! MY FAULT, AN' I CAN'T STAND THAT YA ALMOST DIED AN' I ALMOST **FAILED** YOU!"

"Shh…" Akane had, at some point, gathered Ranma into her arms and was holding him carefully as the moon peeked in through the window, "its okay. You didn't fail me. I'm fine, right? See?" and before he could stop her, she pulled his hand, now so much smaller than hers, up to rest over her heart.

Before Ranma could truly protest, he felt a strange surge, like he was stretching everything at once…and suddenly he was looking down at Akane instead of up. Looking down at the shredded remains of the toddler's clothes, he blinked before snatching his hand away from Akane's…

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he gasped, squeezing his eyes shut, "I didn't…it wasn't…"

"Ranma!"

"Yeah?"

"You're back to normal."

"I am?" Ranma looked down, then grinned, "I am!" he was about to jump up when a thought came to him, "ah…can ya get me some…clothes?" he asked, only to have a neatly folded pile thrust under his nose.

"I thought it might be a good idea to keep them around, seeing as how nothing ever turns out like it should where you're concerned," Akane noted wryly, her eyes tightly shut, "but…" she trailed off as he pulled on his boxers.

"But what?" he asked, the tank top going on under the pajamas. It was kinda cold at night.

Akane bit her lower lip and fidgeted, having no idea how appealing that looked to her iinazuki sitting on her bed, "can you spend the night? I don't mean…like that…" she hastily added when he gawked at her, "I just…want you to be…here…tonight. Okay?"

Ranma gaped at her, unsure as to what to say, "oh."

Her face heated and she turned away, babbling about unattractive tomboys and how could anyone possibly want to be around her.


End file.
